"It's A Lager Not A Tune!"

I'm getting really really crap at doing updates, and for that I apologise.

However, in the run up to Christmas, things have got a little manic and every spare moment has been spent chillin' or watching Lord of the Rings extended versions.

Oh, and I've also been playing Brute Force. Starting to become convinced that the commander who gives you all the missions is gonna turn out to be a baddie come the end of the game. We shall see.

But anyway, Lord of the Rings. Nasssssty tricksssssy filmses. Over the past two weekends we've watched the Extended Versions of the first two films. Now, I can understand why the films were cut down a little for the cinema, but at the same time... Sooooo Much Better extended. Particularly Fanghorn Forest moving to the entrance to Helm's Deep. My favourite bit of The Two Towers is still the Sacking of Isengard. The Battle of Helm's Deep is fantastic, but the Sacking is even better.

Tickets have now been booked for The Return of the King on Sunday.

Here ends my participation in Lord of the Rings hype for this entry.

The most ridiculous attempt at wringing every last minute of coverage out of Saddam's Capture was reported to me by Alison last night. Apparently they found some Bounty bars and Mars bars and some 7UP where Saddam was hiding, so some journo apparently thought it was newsworthy to call Mars and see if they approved of this endorsement of their products. Jeez Louise! You missed that one, Booberella. Where was your "Mars CEO Reax"? :-)

As a token effort to participate in Blog Week 2003 I'd just like to point people in the direction of PsychoSylum. I did try to grab more random diaries but since my random method consisted of "clicking on any diary banner" and most of the time I just got that benighted "Gold" banner, this is the only diary I found. I'm not focused enough to go through and complete all the requirements for Blog Week participation as I am mostly trying to think of things to get someone for Christmas. What do you get for the woman who already has a sexy blonde?

I've just heard a session version of Mad World on Radio 1. Fucking gorgeous! All my UK readers must buy this record, we can't have the Pop Idols' evil desecration of Happy Christmas/War Is Over as the Christmas Number One. We can't we can't we can't! OK so The Darkness being Christmas Number One would also be okay but c'mon, they do sound totally like Queen.

I don't seem to have gotten as far as mentioning Alison's concert on Friday. The Wind Orchestra she plays in did their Christmas concert, and it was fandabbydozey! There's this piece called Christmas Festival, which half of you would probably recognise if you heard it, and I really like it. I've seen it done before at the previous few Christmas Concerts of another band Alison used to play in, but I've never seen it done that well before. Fantastic. There were other top tunes (Jeez I sound like Pat Sharp (woo! woo!)) including the choir (who I'd never seen before and who were rather good also even if a bit top heavy in the ego department) doing The Twelve Days After Christmas, a most amusing song, google for the lyrics. But yeah, I've not enjoyed a concert that much is a lonnnnnnnng time.

"Do Do Do the Funky Gibbon!"

And will someone please get these two a room. Preferably sound-proofed. They can worry about the travel arrangements themselves, but getting the room would give them a helping hand in the right direction. Ha!

Oh, and we saw my cousin this weekend for the first time in four years. And most of the rest of the extended family on my Mum's side, but my cousin would be the important one since we see him so rarely. The one who's got the CD out. And he read most of Past Participants (which is probably going to be retitled Night of the Despots), and he liked it. Liked the idea I've got about writing it under a pen-name too (people who've read it should be able to guess the pen-name I'd use).

Also saw my youngest second cousin (no. 3) for the first time (he's about 9 months old). Such a sweetie. Second cousin no. 2 has also changed a lot since I saw him at the Wedding, he's a lot less shy now, and kept going up to people, grabbing their little finger and dragging them off to help him do whatever it was he wanted to do - usually muck around on the pool table. Second cousin no. 1 is still a bit of a terror. She had a strop at me which wasn't too enjoyable but I've got to remember that she was an only child for the first 5 years of her life and her little brother hasn't yet totally cured her of spoiled brat syndrome. Don't think she gets told off, ever. I very nearly gave her a telling off but wasn't sure it was my place. Feh.

Anyway, my extended lunch-break has been extended almost to breaking point, so I ought to do some work. Double feh.